A Surge Of Covid-19 Cases Has Put Nearly 30 Million In China Under Lockdown

15 March 2022 Coronavirus

On Tuesday, nearly 30 million people across China were placed under lockdown as surging virus cases prompted massive health tests and hazmat suits to return to the streets for the first time since the announcement of the pandemic started.

As the highly transmissible Omicron variant spreads across China, a country that has been adamant about achieving the zero-COVID goal, it has reported 5,280 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, more than doubling the previous day's number.

With Omicron gaining traction in communities, that approach which is based on local lockdowns and left China almost cut off from the outside world for two years seems at risk.

Locked-down cities

There were partial lockdowns in more than a dozen cities across the country on Tuesday.

According to the National Health Commission, over 3,000 new cases were reported in the northeastern province of Jilin on Tuesday.

The provincial capital of Changchun, which has a population of nine million, has ordered its residents to stay at home.

Shanghai - home to over 22 million people and one of China's largest cities - is in the midst of a lattice of restrictions, but there is no citywide shutdown in Shenzhen - a technology hotspot of 17 million people.

Yet scenes of closed neighborhoods, panic buying, and police cordons reflect the early stages of the epidemic, which emerged in late 2019 in China but has faded in most other countries.

The world's second-largest economy recorded more than 1,000 new cases on Tuesday for the sixth day in a row, with experts predicting the outbreak will dent economic growth.

Tommy Wu, of Oxford Economics, said that recent COVID outbreaks and restrictions, notably Shenzhen's lockdown, will affect consumer demand and disrupt supply in the near term.

The official GDP growth target for China is around 5.5% this year. According to him, it will be "challenging" for the country to achieve that target.

More than three per cent of Hong Kong stocks fell Tuesday, adding to a tech-fueled rout on Monday.

Factory closures and disruptions in air travel

Data from flight tracking shows that dozens of domestic flights were cancelled Tuesday morning at Beijing and Shanghai airports.

A spokesman for the Volkswagen Group said three sites in Changchun, Jilin, were forced to close for at least three days following an outbreak.

Shanghai has also sealed off certain neighborhoods and buildings in an effort to minimize disruption to daily life.

In response to the Omicron variant, a leading Chinese medical expert has proposed that the zero-COVID strategy be softened. However, he warned there would be no relaxation of mass testing or lockdown in the short term.

Officials also say that a tightening of restrictions is possible.

At an emergency meeting Monday night, Jilian's governor vowed to try hard to achieve a zero-COVID community in a week.

On Monday, Jilin residents were forbidden to leave the province or travel around it.

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